I had 2 2004 Avensi, the first was a diesel, hatch company car that I did about 65K in from new over 2.5 years. Faultless, did go through a lot of front tyres as a diesel fwd in the hands of a 22yo is want to do. I later came back to the fold with a 1.8 petrol, which obviously wasn’t as economical. I could take 2 disassembled bikes in the boot with the back seats up though (I remember when I ordered the first one they had the biggest boot in class by quite a long way).
Handling can’t be described as lively, but the trade off is that they’re good for doing long distances, even on crappy Northumberland A roads. The diesel was okay in the snow too.
Oh I took the dash to bits and muted the seatbelt buzzer a bit, that was a good mod.
boot stays aren’t strong enough for the hefty lid on the hatch.